Seven years ago, when Reed Hastings was still the CEO of Netflix , he made a rather cold comment on an earnings call that soon became an infamous anecdote of company lore. “You know, think about it,” Hastings said . “When you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night.
We’re competing with sleep, on the margin.” At the time, Hastings was trying to make the point that Netflix wasn’t worried about what supposed competitors were doing. HBO, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix could all be successful because there was so much demand for streaming originals.
Sure, subscribers may choose to watch a program on HBO when they get home from work on a Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean that’s all they’ll watch. There’s not only Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the entire weekend left for Netflix shows, but there’s also Tuesday night, after the HBO show is over. Maybe the viewer should shut down their screens and read a book instead but come on.
Who’s going to do that? People have TVs in their bedrooms! They have phones they can prop up next to their pillows! They can watch Netflix as they fall asleep and then flip it back on the second they wake up! Sleep is the enemy , not other networks . Of course, Hastings caught a bit of flack for the remark. Arguing that your product is so addictive it could — and should! — rob its customers of a good night’s sleep isn’t exactly good and decent behavior.
People need to sleep. It keeps th.